Wednesday, November 23, 2016

"Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past"

"Who controls the past," ran the Party slogan, "controls the future: who controls the present controls the past."

-- George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (page 32 in the Signet reprint of the 1949 hardcover).

In a recent episode of his commentary and podcast entitled News & Views from the Nefarium, Dr. Joseph P. Farrell said:

I think now is the time that we have to drive the linguistic agenda -- and we have to drive it deliberately, and with very, very careful thought. We need to rename -- hear me now -- we need to re-name the "alternative media," with a new name that cannot allow it to be dismissed as a "fringe group" of people, because clearly, it's not. We need a new name for it.

We need a new name for the "mainstream media" -- I've always called it the "lamestream media." [. . .] But we need to use these names on a regular basis, and again: drive it into the conversation. News & Views from the Nefarium: November 10, 2016.

I would offer as possible labels the terms "captive media" (or "captured media") for those platforms that pay their employees and other production costs based on either corporate advertising dollars or government funding, and "independent media" for those that pay for their production costs based entirely on subscriptions or donations by individual listeners (or without any donations, government funding, or advertising revenues whatsoever).

The quotation above, from George Orwell's classic warning, that those who wish to control the future will take steps in the present to control our understanding of history, is very timely today. In the same passage of his book, Orwell's narrator explains that "if all records told the same tale, then the lie passed into history and became truth" (cited in this previous post).

This warning is as pertinent to recent history as it is to ancient history -- and it should be abundantly evident that there are powerful forces at present, at this very moment in time, who wish to control the narrative of both recent history and ancient history, in order to control the future.

Anyone who doubts that the narrative of ancient history is important to understanding more recent history -- and to understanding the forces at present which seek to control the future -- might consider making an effort to re-watch the original 1968 film version of Planet of the Apes.

I would also recommend including as much high-quality "independent media" as possible in one's daily media consumption, including the many quality podcasts which are now available -- and I would also recommend supporting quality independent media financially with subscriptions and/or donations as much as possible, as well.